World Bank and Private Sector Measurement Tools: How are these the

answer to the question of education and poverty?

Susan. L. Robertson

Panel: Big Data

CIES Toronto, 11-15th March, 2014

What is the question to which Saber-Teachers is the answer?

• By raising student achievement is it possible to enhance social and economic progress and reduce poverty? YES (says the Bank)

• By comparing teacher policies around the world can we develop a better framework for boosting student achievement across the world, can we improve pupil performance? YES (says the Bank)

• Is teacher effectiveness the key to predicting student learning? YES (says the Bank)

First International Conference on Teachers 2011 (US Dept of State, OECD,

Education International, and global philanthropists)

EACH REPORT BEGINS WITH…

• Policy mapping – a comprehensive description of the policies education systems put into place to manage their teaching force.

• Policy guidance – highlights those policies that matter most for building an effective teacher policy system. – The selection mechanism for teacher policies is improved

student outcomes.– These are potential policy levers

• Policy comparison – both in terms of trajectory (judgement about how well pursuing direction/comparison with others)

SABER-Teachers Framework

1. Who regulates requirements for entering and remaining in the teaching field

2. Initial teacher preparation3. Recruitment and employment4. Teacher autonomy and workload5. Compensation – salary and non-salary benefits6. Retirement rules and benefits7. Monitoring and evaluation8. Teacher representation and voice9. School leadership

Questions (with sub-questions)

To date, SABER-Teachers has already collected information or is doing so in 65 education systems in 44 countries. -Looking for causal -Correlational analyses and case studies-Use of international teacher policy data – such as OECD, Eurydice, UNESCO.

Progress to date

Poster children

Poster children

CASE STUDY - CAMBODIA

1. The focus is on the ‘facts’ of policy rather than teachers’’ enactment of – however these state ‘facts’ (official knowledge) of policy are aspirational and not material.

2. Focus on ‘policy’ will feed a whole army of policy consultants – much as the performance review systems in the many countries.

3. Suffers from methodological ‘educationism’ – eg. the informal economy is not taken into account regarding teachers’ labour.

4. View of the problem and solutions represents a diminished view teachers’ work.

5. Limits to power as it travels over a distance (Allen).

Between ‘facts and facts’

Struggle taking place over the field of symbolic control over the governance of education for global competitiveness. Teacher policies are one of those (the holy grail) – however the contradiction in this attempt to govern is that the very difference that teachers make (professionalism, peer learning, collective responsibility) is washed out in this global data gathering approach.

What has this got to do with education and poverty?

• Hubris and the ‘god trick’ – that big data will solve these and that there is one solution.

• Being BIG data does not exempt it from being BAD data.

• Spurious correlations – teacher incentives and economic growth.